Epagneul et lévriers

A liver-and-white spaniel lies resting on the bare ground while a tall pale greyhound stands beside it and a second, brownish hound lingers behind, the three dogs set against the ruined stone arch of a gatehouse through which a rider on horseback rides away into a sunlit landscape. Dogs were the specialty of Jan Le Ducq, a painter from The Hague active in the third quarter of the seventeenth century, and this small picture — painted in oils on copper, a support prized for the jewel-like finish it gives small scenes — is a characteristic example of the dog pieces that won him the notice of his contemporaries. The painting is held in the Petit Palais, Musée des Beaux-Arts de la Ville de Paris.